DISABLED children may be forced into full-time care by £50,000 cuts to services provided by a respite centre.

Management at the Summerfield Resource Centre, in Wootton Road, Abingdon, admit they are worried their decision to stop overnight care three times a week may be too much for some families to cope with.

Parents are also upset with the news that the centre will close on Bank Holidays - including Easter and Christmas.

Oxfordshire County Council confirmed at a recent meeting on Tuesday that Summerfield and three other respite centres in the county - St Nicholas's House in Littlemore, Chilterns at Henley and Sycamore at Banbury - would not close.

However, management at all four centres were told they would have to make cuts of £200,000 between them by April 1, in time for the beginning of the 1998/99 financial year.

Summerfield manager Ms Ann Lowe revealed that a decision has already been made at her centre on how to make the savings.

From April 1, overnight care will no longer be provided on Mondays to Wednesdays during term-time, the centre will be closed on all Bank Holidays and staff who have left will not be replaced.

That immediately met with the disapproval of some parents.

Mr Colin Webster, whose four-year-old son Daniel attends the centre, said of the cut in Bank Holiday cover: "I think parents will be very disappointed because these are the times when they need the care the most." And, although not personally affected, he felt for parents whose children are looked after overnight.

"I am sure that would affect some parents greatly," he said.

Ms Lowe claimed that cutting overnight care would not affect the majority of the 58 children, aged four to 17, who are currently looked after at the centre, as they only receive day care.

She admitted that it could lead to some families who are affected resorting to full-time care.

"That could be a worry," she said. "We provide a service which currently helps parents who have disabled children have some respite."But she felt the decision was the best option available, however, and would affect as few Summerfield youngsters as possible. Providing overnight and Bank Holiday cover was also expensive with regards to staff costs, she said.

Mr Webster claimed that parents had been kept in the dark about the plans. He said: "It is our children that are going to be affected. I would be disappointed if they are now bringing forward these suggestions without consulting the parents."

However, Ms Lowe said claimed that staff had held meetings with parents to discuss what was happening.

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